As our community celebrates Public Schools Week, the newly constituted Cincinnati Public School District Board of Education is recommitting ourselves to ensuring we provide equitable access to a world-class education, unleashing the potential of every student.

As the recently elected president of the school board, I’m dedicated to ensuring our district educates all of our students with rigor and care, ultimately to prepare our students for life.

Our My Tomorrow initiative ensures that all of our students are prepared for the future. We’re already seeing results from these investments. Ninety-six percent of 2017 CPS graduates were accepted into a college program, enlisted in the military or entered the workforce – this is up from 92 percent in 2016. ACT scores have increased by 5 percent over the last four years. The number of students taking Advanced Placement courses has increased by 42 percent in the last three years, and more of our students are taking multiple Advanced Placement courses.

Our enrollment has increased by 2,543 students since 2013. We opened three innovative schools last year, and this year we opened a neighborhood school in Clifton – the Clifton Area Neighborhood School – to serve students in the historic neighborhoods of Clifton, Spring Grove and CUF, which includes Clifton Heights, University Heights, and Fairview.

None of this could be accomplished without the strong investment and support of our community and business partners, and the commitment of Cincinnati’s taxpayers. This past November, 66 percent of voters approved our renewal levy – just a year after voters approved Issue 44, a historic increase investing in Cincinnati Public Schools and creating Preschool Promise.

Issue 44 has allowed CPS to continue to expand our Vision 2020 initiative, ensuring that all of our neighborhood schools will have a Magnet-like program by 2020. We’ve shrunk the technology gap, ensuring each of our high school students has access to a device that connects them to the Internet – keeping them connected to their teacher and opening up a world of discovery.

Board of Education members are committed to increasing our public engagement and broadening our involvement in the Cincinnati community to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face. The fact is, the success of our students is heavily impacted by the quality of their environment. Poverty, and inherent issues like affordable healthcare, housing, and availability of good-paying jobs, has much to do with the success of our students. These are societal issues – not school issues.

Working with our local and regional leaders, CPS will play an even larger role in community initiatives to create an economic climate that is equitable and just and will enable our children to succeed.

Cincinnati Public Schools will prepare your students for life. It’s our shared community investment and leadership that will create a city and a community in which they will flourish.

Carolyn Jones is president of the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education. A graduate of Hughes High School, Jones has been a board member since 2016.